Many things to many people
November 28th, 2007
So while I was in the Minneapolis airport yesterday morning (where it was 6 degrees Fahrenheit outside, BTW (man, I love Greenville) ), I was doing my weekly Google search for “Brains on Fire” to see what popped up. One of the results was our client at a WOMMA conference talking about her experiences. I hadn’t listened to it in a while, so I pressed play. All her words were great, but this time around, one set of them really stuck in my head:
“It’s so great because this word of mouth movement means so many different things to so many different people.”
And I think that’s the beauty of an organic, sustainable word of mouth movement. It’s not about viral videos. It’s not about a spike in conversations. It’s not even about giving away product and telling people how to talk about it. It’s about putting it out there, providing tools and letting people do their own thing. In the past, John Moore has talked about the difference between AT and WITH marketing. But I think it goes even beyond that. When someone picks up a tool that you’ve given them and does something that you (or your client) would’ve never thought of in a million years, it’s not AT or even WITH marketing. I don’t have a name for it, but it’s good stuff.
In addition, it allows that company, product or service to mean different things to different people. It’s not widgets being sold to people widgets. People aren’t widgets. Each one is unique with nuances in their life experiences, values and beliefs. But when they apply those life experience, values and beliefs and take you under their wing – watch out. You never know how it will manifest itself. We’re constantly amazed at how individuals in communities use the tools they’ve been given. And we’re also humbled by it.
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